Cornell University suing Ticats VP Kent Austin: report

Cornell University is suing Hamilton Tiger-Cats vice president of football operations Kent Austin for $100,000 over his departure in 2012, according to the Cornell Daily Sun.

And the Ticats may have purchased his house in New York State.

The story says Austin’s five-year, $1.4 million deal with the university, where he served as head coach for three seasons beginning in 2010, included a penalty clause if he departed before the contract’s scheduled expiration in January, 2015.

Austin left to join the Ticats in December, 2012.

The story says that Austin was allowed by the university’s athletic director to delay the payment until after the sale of his property in Cayuga Heights, a suburb just outside Ithaca, New York where Cornell University is based.

From the story:

Austin ultimately broke even on the Cayuga Heights house, selling it in April 2016 for the same price he paid — $630,000 — although the sale raises more questions than answers.

The buyer, listed on the deed as HTCFC, Inc., appears to be a parent company for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — Austin’s employer. The incorporation is a North Carolina business corporation formed in 2003 whose president is Robert Young, owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, according to documents filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State.

Less than eight months after making the purchase, HTCFC sold the Cayuga Heights property at a loss of $170,000 to a man from West Palm Beach, Florida, deeds show.

The university filed suit on Tuesday seeking the $100,000, as well as nine percent interest and costs associated with the lawsuit.